Doing a high volume of very easy jogging? How much is too much to do daily in singles?

Ok. Let's take it to the next level and walk 3 hrs, or 6...instead of the slow jarring. Would that work? Of course not. Totally different fibers. Totally different form. Totally unsuitable for toughening you for speedwork. My point being, there is a point of diminishing returns when it comes to slowing the pace. I don't know anybody who has done that. It makes no sense, unless the "speed work" is just faster slow running.

“Too much” is going to vary, but your body and mind will let you know. Increase gradually and see how it goes.

The only way to know is to try it.

Anecdotes? I have done periods of 100+mpw on singles during base building, but haven’t sustained it for more than maybe 8 weeks at a time. This is off of a yearly average of about 65mpw with most weeks total being around 75 miles for several years prior.

Not huge mileage, but what I could manage at the time. Just easy miles, maybe some tempo here and there, the occasional wind sprints but never any hard track or intense hill workouts during those times.

I’m a bit of a dinosaur and am of the mind that if you can’t do the easy miles you really shouldn’t be doing the hard ones.

Run more for sure. I don't think you should set out to run slowly. Just seems like a weird mindset to me.

8:20 to 8:50 strikes me as pretty slow given your 5k and HM time. I don't know if it is too slow. But if you're going to do most of your runs "easy," I would probably make it a slightly faster easy than that.

You have a faster 5k than me but a slightly slower HM. Most of my easy days are 7:40 to 8:15 or so. I do about 50 to 60 a week at the moment. Maybe one day has some faster stuff (fartlek or progression/tempo), but a lot of weeks it's all easy cruising.

If you want some lengthy anecdotes on this style of training I highly recommend Joe Henderson's LSD book. A lot of people hate it, but I find it interesting and to be a pretty good read. It's all available online, too:

http://www.joehenderson.com/longslowdistance/home.php?article=

deleuze wrote:

Run more for sure. I don't think you should set out to run slowly. Just seems like a weird mindset to me.

It's not the mindset that slows things down. Easy, everyday runs naturally slow down if you add enough mileage. That is, unless you are forcing the effort, which doesn't make sense for easy runs.

zzzz wrote:

It's not the mindset that slows things down. Easy, everyday runs naturally slow down if you add enough mileage. That is, unless you are forcing the effort, which doesn't make sense for easy runs.

Yeah I never found this to be true in my own running.

deleuze wrote:

zzzz wrote:

It's not the mindset that slows things down. Easy, everyday runs naturally slow down if you add enough mileage. That is, unless you are forcing the effort, which doesn't make sense for easy runs.

Yeah I never found this to be true in my own running.

What was low mileage and what was high for you?

If the track beats you up, take it off the track with fartleks and hilly workouts.

Low 35ish, high 80-90, sometimes 100. Higher the mileage, the faster my overall pace.

deleuze wrote:

Low 35ish, high 80-90, sometimes 100. Higher the mileage, the faster my overall pace.

I believe you. We are just different, and the pros are also all different too, some running slow easy days, other fast. I see local guys on strava going kind of fast every day on longish runs, and I consider them grinders (trail/ultra), while I have a lot more 5/10K type speed. I also was doing a lot more mileage at the high end (140-145) and in singles, so maybe pushed into a zone that you didn't explore.

I got excellent results when I slowed my training pace and increased my mileage from about 45 miles per week to nearly 70 miles per week on dirt trails in the hills. After two months of high mileage, I did a 5K time trial and was shocked by how fast I was able to run.

colorunner123 wrote:

I got excellent results when I slowed my training pace and increased my mileage from about 45 miles per week to nearly 70 miles per week on dirt trails in the hills. After two months of high mileage, I did a 5K time trial and was shocked by how fast I was able to run.

How much faster was that 5k time trial than you thought it would be? Was it a PR? Near an old PR when you did hard/fast training?

zzzz wrote:

I believe you. We are just different, and the pros are also all different too, some running slow easy days, other fast. I see local guys on strava going kind of fast every day on longish runs, and I consider them grinders (trail/ultra), while I have a lot more 5/10K type speed. I also was doing a lot more mileage at the high end (140-145) and in singles, so maybe pushed into a zone that you didn't explore.

That's a lot of miles. 20 miles a day in singles? That would definitely slow me down!

In my experience as miles increased the variation in pacing of my easy days would be larger. But generally I ran the same or a bit faster because I was in that much better shape. When running at 80mpw, easy pace ~7:00. When running at 35mpw, easy pace ~7:30.

My approach is/was just to run how I felt. There's a lot of advice given about how it's important to slow down on easy days, and maybe it's right. Maybe I would have run faster if I just trotted on the easy days.

Josh McDougal 2007 NCAA XC Champ (outkicked Galen Rupp). He ran 130 mpw that cross country season and "only" ran 110 mpw the week of NCAA XC. He ran 18 miles a day Monday through Saturday and 22 on Sunday. He'd do easy runs at 5:50 pace, which comes out to 18 miles in 105 minutes. On workout days he'd just do extra long cool downs to hit his regular 18 miles for the day.

So what's the most you can do in singles? About 105 minutes with a long run of maybe a bit more like 135-150 minutes.

If you haven't done so yet, obtain a copy of Hadd's training philosophy. You can decide if you want to buy into it or not.

I, personally, am the type of runner that has very little 'speed' and am pretty slow but can train aerobically to hold close to my fastest pace for a very long time. I run as slowly as I need to get the mileage up. For me hi mileage is ~75mpw. I'll do some tempos and threshold runs but that's it. Only thing faster would be 200s AFTER a tempo or threshold workout.

Building up to daily 18-20miles (usually double per day,one shorter one longer run) + in every 10 day a long strong tempo 25-35km (progression to MP) + in every 10 day 10 x 2000m or 20 x 1000m (about HM pace) + a few strides here and there almost every second day(short hills,or flat either).

Rinse repeat for a few years...it is not a quick build.

No need to purposely slow down. Easy is a feeling, not a pace. You are 22. If you gradually increase mileage you should be fine. If some days you feel sore or stiff, then walk or take the day off. You may find that as you spend months at higher mileage with lots of easy pace, that your 'easy' pace is actually slowly increasing due to better fitness.

What kind of race are you preparing for? If its a 5k or 10k you'd be wasting your time with just packing on mileage. As one poster mentioned, if the track beats you up move intervals to fartlek or hills on the road or a cross country course. I have been averaging over 100mpw for more than 3 years straight and I can tell you, that despite a quality workout and crushing a long run once a week (20-25 miles @ or under 6:0x pace), I am no where near capable of running a PB in the 5 or 10. The quality just isn't there. You can be as aerobically strong as you want, but if you don't teach your body to run FAST (relatively) you are greatly limiting yourself. For reference, my easy/aerobic/medium long runs are 7:00-5:40, recovery 7:45-7:00, interval paces vary greatly but lets say 70-66 for reps 400-800, 70-69 for 1000-1600.

deleuze wrote:

Low 35ish, high 80-90, sometimes 100. Higher the mileage, the faster my overall pace.

Hello.